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Friday, February 26, 2010

One of the things that I love best about walking with Christ is that the journey just gets better and better.

Each step of the way brings a host of new and fabulous adventures with Jesus. As our journey progresses, our steps become more determined and more purposed. Our steps take on a new urgency.

Our passion for Him burns hotter and brighter.

The further we venture from our beginnings and as we mature in Him, the closer we draw into that awesome intimacy with Christ. We ascend to a higher place with God.

We learn to tap into His mighty power through prayer and study.

As we dig deep into His Word, we begin to develop a fuller, more comprehensive knowledge of God and His sovereignty. We come to know Him like never before. Our worship of Him just whets our appetite for more.

We fill ourselves up in the abundance of His sweet outpouring.

Bask in the comfort of His loving embrace.

Find our place in the blessed assurance of His love and care.

And then,

We begin to experience the much more of God. The much more of His Spirit. The much more of His mercy. The much more of His grace.

Our soul starts to long for His presence. We yearn for the manifestation of that presence in our lives.

For His awesome glory to fall on us.

For a mind-blowing, life-altering encounter with Jesus.

Our spirits are filled with great expectancy of the abounding and abundant life that He promises in His Word.

We become lovers of God.

Seekers of Him.

Hungering and thirsting for the deep things.

Devouring His word.

Feasting on the bread of life.

Dining with Jesus.

Journeying with the Savior and savoring each step as He walks with us on the way.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

I have an insatiable longing and desire for a deeper and more intimate relationship with God. I have a furious hunger that just starts in the depths of my being and there is just no satisfying it. The more I learn, the more I want to know. The more I seek, the more I want to search. The more I find, the more I want to keep looking.

Every time I read the scriptures, He shows me new and awesome things. He just keeps revealing new truths and new treasures. I have a new appreciation for the mighty Word of God. I am seeing it with a whole different perspective. I’m like a kid in a candy store and I just can’t get enough.

I love God’s Word! I just love how He opens up a whole new world of knowledge to me each time I study the bible. Knowledge of who He really is. Knowledge of who I am in Him. Knowledge of His power and His might. His sovereignty. His omnipotence. Oh, He is so good!

He sent a mighty rain to my spirit - drenching me in the water of His Word. He has just opened up the floodgates and I am soaked with His presence. I feel like there has been a downpour in my life that has watered some mighty dry places that have been in desperate need of some moisture!

My soul is so thirsty for Him. I want to be saturated in His glory. I want to feel Him ever present in my life. I want to savor the sweet fragrance of Him as I delve deep into His Word and uncover Jesus in some powerful new encounters.

I am on a passionate pursuit. Purposefully seeking the ‘much more’ that He has for me. Just reveling in the wonder of Him. Ready for all that He is to penetrate and make me all that I can be for the kingdom of God.

I pray that I never get filled up. I pray that I continue to seek and find. I pray that I will always fully embrace the amazing grace of God.

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Lord, fill those dry and empty places in my life. Restore, renew and revive me. Enable me to discern Your voice. Hear You speak. Feel Your presence. Your Word tells me that if I seek you with all of my heart that I will find You and I do want to find You, Lord. As I seek, show me the way. Guide my steps. Lead me to You. Oh, Lord, show me Your glory.

You are mighty and powerful. You are merciful and gracious. You are my whole life. I love You and I praise You. Send a downpour in my life.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Have you ever felt like the Lord had something really important to tell you, but that He was waiting until He felt like you were ready. I mean, really ready?

Deep down in the recesses of my spirit, I feel Him nudging me with the beginnings of a work He wants to do in me. A work that He wants to do through me. I sense a stirring in my inner being of Him trying to prepare me for the next step He will guide me in. A stirring that continues to build but one that isn't on the verge of errupting into the tangible yet.

I have been trying to be still lately and focus more on Him. Trying to be still so He can move. I have felt like I need some serious quiet time with Him so that He can speak. I have even wondered why He is taking so long to reveal things to me. And then tonight as I was praying, it occured to me that perhaps that is part of what He is doing in my life. Helping me to see the importance of a continual and growing relationship with Him. Helping me to see the beauty in the waiting. It seems like when I am waiting for Him to talk to me, I spend a lot more time seeking His presence. I spend a lot more time on my face before Him.

I so desire a deeper and deeper walk with Him. I long to meet with Him. I find myself hurrying through the daily mundane things so I can retreat to my study and just get with God! There's nothing quite as serene as the feeling I get when I begin to commune with Jesus. I just long to sit in His presence. I long to feel His sweet embrace. I can just bask in the glorious splendor of the Holy Spirit and allow my soul to be drenched in His love. Satiated in the knowledge that He desires to fellowship with me. Knowing that He loves to spend time with me and that He even delights in me.

I realize that when He is ready to begin a new work in my life, He will open my eyes, my ears and my heart so that I can see, receive and hear. He will most certainly reveal those hidden things when He senses that I am ready to walk in obedience of the calling. Those deep things that He has for me will come. The purpose that He has in mind for my life will come to fruition. I just have to be still and wait. Wait for His perfect timing. His perfect will.

But for now, I have a long way to go in allowing my heart to be sanctified. I have some things that the Lord and I have to deal with. Some attitudes that I have to come to terms with. Some areas of spiritual neglect that need some remodeling.

I am definitely a work in progress. And I am so thankful that God is so patient. So merciful. So gracious.

In the meantime, I will derive my strength from Him. I will spend time in His presence. Time at His feet. I will be still and I will wait.

Monday, February 15, 2010

"But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold..."

(Luke 8:8)

A few weeks ago, while at our Siesta event in Houston, Beth Moore made a statement that has taken up residence in my mind and caused me to really give it some serious thought lately. She simply said the following:

"You have to plant it before you can pass it"

It doesn't seem like a real profound statement, but when you really settle in on it and think it through, it is SO profound! She is speaking about the Word of God - perhaps even a word from God. A rhema word.

There are times when we hear what we believe to be a good word. And we are so eager to tell others all about it. We just can't wait to share with others what we have heard. Because we 'heard a good Word!"

It can be an encouraging word or just an intriguing word, but when we simply pass it on or pass it down the line, we haven't done anything but just pass it. We haven't allowed it to settle deep in our spirits. We haven't allowed it be planted in us. We haven't allowed it to change us.

Sometimes we are even guilty of thinking that perhaps that word is for somebody else. Anybody else. Someone we know that NEEDS that word. Amen?

Truth of the matter is, most likely it was a word that we could certainly apply to our own lives. A word that needed some soil to take root in. And some water - perhaps our tears - to help it grow. A word that needed to be planted and nurtured and show signs of taking root before we could pass it down to another person.

It needed to become a testimony of sorts in our lives so that we could give witness to the truth and depth of the Word. So we could give credence to what God was showing us.

When we hear a word that is convicting, I think that sometimes we are quick to pass it because then we feel like we aren't admitting that it was a much needed Word in our own lives. If we want to become effective in the body of Christ, we have to start in our own spiritual lives. We have to begin with 'us'.

We need to be digging deep into the scriptures. We need to be seeking Him above all else. We need to be hearing the gospel message preached. Hearing a good Word. Applying it to our lives. Packin' it down with well-watered soil and allowing it to grow.

Then and only then can we become effective doers of the Word. Then we can confidently pass what we have gleaned. Then we can being to see God really start to work and move in our lives.

We need to pass it - that is for sure - but let's make sure that first of all, we know what we are passing.

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Lord, help me to not only hear a good Word, but to let it soak in my spirit and apply it deep into my own life. Then Lord, help me to be able to pass it with a genuine testimony of what a powerful Word it was and can be in the lives of others. I love you Lord, and I desire to be nothing less than a true instrument for Your glory.

Friday, February 12, 2010

"Train up a child in the way he should go,and when he is old he will not depart from it"(Proverbs 22:6)

My journey with God began almost before I can even remember. I have loved Jesus since I was a little girl. I can't recall ever NOT loving Him. It just seems like I was born knowing and loving my precious Lord.

Some of my earliest memories are of my mother reading her bible. I can still picture her spending time with the Lord. Reading and studying the word. Listening to sermon tapes. Going to seminars. My mother had a very evident relationship with Jesus and was most instrumental in the deepening love I developed for Christ. She lived her faith outloud. She made sure that me, my sister and my brother were raised in the Lord's house. We attended children's bible study and VBS. We listend to Christian music. She exposed us early on to a life of Christianity and was a true example of it as well.

For that, I love her and will always be grateful. Because of my mother's love for the Lord, I was introduced to the One that would love me like no one else. I met my Savior and accepted His free gift of grace and eternal life.

I'd like to say that I have lived a perfect life since that time, but we all know that is impossible. And even though I never abandoned my faith, there were times when I abandoned my Jesus. I wasted a lot of years being a surface Christian. Not really understanding fully what it meant to enter into a real, love relationship with Christ. I just sorta skimmed the top and got what I could.

I thought that just being a Christian was enough and didn't give much thought to actually growing in my Christian walk. I spent many years in limbo. Coasting along the 'salvation highway' but not really going anywhere- destination unknown. I was reading His Word, but not devouring it. I was studying the bible, but not really hungering for it. I didn't realize the magnitude of the amazing love that could exist between me and Christ.

I mourn for all the lost years. I regret not falling so head-over-heels in love with Jesus sooner. I have come to love Him with such an overwhelming and all-consuming love.

He is the greatest joy and the biggest blessing in my life!

I can't fathom an existence without Him as my Lord and Savior.

The more I seek Him, the more I find Him and the more I love Him. As I know Him more, the deeper my longing for Him grows. I love to love Him.

My desire for righteousness and holiness stems from my desire to live a life that pleases Him. I want to be a servant of His, for His glory.

I can't make up for the years that I squandered away. I can't go back and redo those times when I was headed in the wrong direction or perhaps just standing still with NO direction.

But I can vow to live the rest of my life according to His Word. Following His commands. Obeying Him. Embarking on a journey of intimacy with Jesus. Being all that He saved me to be.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I read that statement in a book called “Holiness - the Heart God Purifies” by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

I don’t have to tell you that when I read that simple statement, it really caused me stop and think. Stop and really ponder. It really stopped me in my tracks.

Is my life a place that God can make Himself at home in? Would my life be considered a Holy place? Is it an acceptable abiding place for His Spirit?

The truth?? Sometimes. Maybe even most of the time. But certainly not all of the time. I try very hard to keep myself deep in God’s Word. Seeking, searching, and finding more of Him. But would I consider my life a Holy place? Hmm.. That is a very sobering thought.

I desperately want to keep myself right with God. I aim to keep Him first.To keep my thoughts pure. To keep my actions right. Keep my heart repentant. I desire to live a life that pleases Him. A life that brings Him the glory and honor that He deserves.

But am I succeeding? What about those times that I am most unholy. When I am angry or jealous or irritated. When I am being selfish and unloving. When I am cranky. Can He dwell in me then?

I concede that there are many instances when I don’t exemplify Christ. When I don’t shine for Jesus. Times that my actions don’t always back up my words. Times that my thoughts don’t line up with Him.

Just facing that reality makes me sad. It causes my heart to mourn for all of the “could haves” and “should haves” of my life.

This coming year, I resolve to do some major, heart-changing, life-altering, God-centered business in my spiritual walk.

I am going to do my best to pursue holiness and sanctification in my life.

I plan on spending more time in prayer and more time focusing on allowing Him to show me His holiness. Allowing Him to reveal my sinfulness.

Searching hard after righteousness.

Striving to be Holy as He is Holy.

Making a Holy place of my life so God will abide there.

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's"

(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

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Precious Father, I lay all things unholy in my life at your feet tonight. I confess all things unrighteous in my life to you. Cleanse my heart. Purify my thoughts. Help me to create a dwelling place in my life that is worthy of your presence. Help me to keep seeking after You. Searching for more. Help me to strive higher and dig deeper. My hearts desire is to bring nothing but glory to your name. I love You from the depths of my soul. I praise You with all that I am. Thank you for the awesome and matchless gift of Salvation through your Son. In the mighty and saving name of Jesus, Amen.